Corporate Christmas Party Venues in Jesmond

A neighbourhood barely a mile across holds a country-house hotel, a 119-bedroom conference hotel, a three-floor bar complex, two sports clubs with function rooms and a Michelin Guide restaurant. Most sell exclusive hire rather than a ready-made party night, so the decision comes down to headcount, and whether you want a room of your own.

Shared party night, or exclusive hire

A shared or joiner night is a table in a big room alongside other companies, priced per head with a low minimum, and in Jesmond one venue does it at scale. The Holiday Inn Newcastle Jesmond on Jesmond Road runs Christmas Party Nights on selected dates from 4 December, 7pm to midnight, at £34.95 a head for a two-course meal with a resident DJ. Around them sit murder mystery nights on 4 and 11 December at £47.95 with a welcome drink and three courses, an ABBA tribute on 12 December at £45.50, and afternoon tribute shows at £42.50.

Best for: The cheapest way to give a team of twelve a real party night, with 119 bedrooms above it.

Exclusive hire means the room is yours, and costs either more per head or a minimum spend. Everywhere else here works that way.

A hundred and over

As You Like It has the biggest room in Jesmond, filling three floors of Jesmond Three Sixty on Archbold Terrace, the redeveloped 1864 station site, with bars, karaoke rooms and a fire-pit terrace. Frangipani, its function room, takes around 130 seated or 220 standing on a £2,700 minimum spend, with its own bar and dance floor. Smaller spaces come in far cheaper: the Snug holds 80 standing and the Lounge 40, both on a £550 minimum spend. Its late licence runs to 2am on Fridays and Saturdays, which nothing else here matches.

Jesmond Dene House is the flagship. Its Great Hall, a double-height Arts and Crafts room with oak panelling, an inglenook fireplace and a minstrels' gallery, seats 110 or holds 130 for a reception, has its own entrance away from hotel guests, and is let for festive private dining from £70 a head.

The Holiday Inn is the volume option again: nine function rooms, the largest the Imperial Suite at 180 banquet-style, 200 for a reception or 140 theatre-style, with free parking.

Exclusive hire without a hotel price tag

Jesmond's clubs are the value play. The Northumberland Club on North Jesmond Avenue lets two air-conditioned rooms by the hour: the Main Bar, which holds 100, at £50 an hour, and the Brandling Lounge, which holds 50, at £35. Both have a 65-inch screen and projector, the kitchen does buffets, canapés and bespoke three-course menus, and West Jesmond Metro is a short walk away.

Newcastle Cricket Club on Osborne Avenue hires the Thomson Pavilion Suite, a function room with a stated capacity of 120, plus a terrace and an upstairs meeting room. Works parties are among the events it lists, and it is wheelchair accessible.

For something with a stage, the upstairs room at The Punch Bowl is Bobiks, a 60-capacity former ballroom with automatic curtains and a cinema screen, available for hire above a bar keeping fourteen cask beers.

Best for: A hire fee and a bar tab, instead of a per-head package you did not choose.

Private dining for ten to thirty

Plenty of Jesmond businesses want a table for a dozen, not a ballroom. Jesmond Dene House prices this clearly: private dining at £68 a head, Wednesday to Sunday through December, in rooms seating 12, 20 or 30, with a cocktail on arrival, three courses, crackers, coffee and mince pies. Without a room to yourselves, its festive set menu is £42 for two courses or £49 for three.

Lovage on St George's Terrace is the neighbourhood's Michelin Guide entry. Its largest dining-room table seats six, but it keeps a private space for up to 12 and will do exclusive use above that on a minimum spend. Sohe on Osborne Road has a private dining room for up to 12, partial hire of the bar or rear restaurant for 15 to 30, and exclusive hire from 30. The Valley Junction 397 serves Indian food inside a 1912 Great Northern Railway carriage at the old station, booking up to 12 online and more by phone, and its neighbour The Carriage takes private hire on the same site. As You Like It's own private dining room seats 14 from £45 a head.

The Osborne Road hotels

None of the three hotels on Osborne Road publishes a festive package, so December there is a phone call rather than a brochure. The Cairn Hotel is the most useful: no advertised party nights, but Sohe, Spy Bar and 97 & Social all sit on its ground floor, and the last takes private hire with a buffet menu. Whites Hotel lists no function room, and the New Northumbria Hotel nothing festive online.

Before you pay the deposit

Check the capacity for the layout you are booking: the Imperial Suite's 200 is a standing reception, not 200 dinners. Work out whether you are buying a minimum spend or a hire fee, because £550 behind the bar and £550 for the room are different products. Establish what the drinks package covers, ask about the DJ and the licence time, and get cancellation terms in writing: December balances fall due weeks ahead.

Getting everyone home

This is Jesmond's real advantage: two Metro stations, Jesmond and West Jesmond, with Jesmond a single stop from Haymarket. Osborne Road is also a 20-minute walk from the city centre, which matters when the taxi apps surge on a December Friday. The catch is the Metro: last trains go around half past eleven and there is no night service, so a party running past midnight needs taxis booked when you book the menu.

Best for: Book the room, then book the way home. Jesmond taxis in December are a seller's market.

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